[Lurking Libertarian]

Petitioners submit their petitions to a single justice who then presents that petition to the other justices in a “cert conference.” If four justices believe that the full court should hear an appeal, then “Cert” is granted and the appeal is docketed for the full court. If “Cert” is denied on the petition submitted to one justice, plaintiffs will often resubmit the petition to another justice. The only “non-constitutionalist” justices to receive petitions for Writs of Certiorari in Obama eligibility appeals are former Justice David Souter and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg. All the other petitions went to Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia or Thomas.

No-- all cert. petitions are filed with the Clerk, not with a single justice, and all go to the full Court and all are listed for a conference.

What you are thinking of is the procedure for a request for a stay or other temporary relief pending the Supreme Court's consideration of the cert. petition: those requests go to one Justice; that Justice can either grant it, deny it or send it to the full Court. If that Justice denies it, the petitioner can submit it to another justice (who will then usually submit it to the full court).

In some of the earlier eligibility cases, there were requests for stays (Dinofrio asked for a stay of the inauguration, Taitz asked for a stay of her sanctions, there were a few others). All were denied (or referred to the full court which denied them).

[jamese777]

No— all cert. petitions are filed with the Clerk, not with a single justice, and all go to the full Court and all are listed for a conference.

What you are thinking of is the procedure for a request for a stay or other temporary relief pending the Supreme Court’s consideration of the cert. petition: those requests go to one Justice; that Justice can either grant it, deny it or send it to the full Court. If that Justice denies it, the petitioner can submit it to another justice (who will then usually submit it to the full court).

In some of the earlier eligibility cases, there were requests for stays (Dinofrio asked for a stay of the inauguration, Taitz asked for a stay of her sanctions, there were a few others). All were denied (or referred to the full court which denied them).

---

You’re RIGHT! I went back and looked at the docket for all nine of the Obama eligibility related appeals to reach the Supreme Court and what I thought were Petitions for Writs of Certiorari being submitted to Justices were actually applications for stays pending the submission of a Petition, just as you said.
Here’s an example from Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz:
No. 08A469
Title: Cort Wrotnowski, Applicant
v.
Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut Secretary of State

Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Connecticut
Case Nos.: (SC 18264)

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 25 2008 Application (08A469) for stay and/or injunction, submitted to Justice Ginsburg.
Nov 26 2008 Application (08A469) denied by Justice Ginsburg.
Nov 29 2008 Application (08A469) refiled and submitted to Justice Scalia.
Dec 8 2008 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of December 12, 2008.
Dec 8 2008 Application (08A469) referred to the Court by Justice Scalia.
Dec 9 2008 Supplemental brief of applicant Cort Wrotnowski filed. (Distributed)
Dec 15 2008 Application (08A469) denied by the Court.

And here’s the docket entry for Berg v Obama:
No. 08-570
Title: Philip J. Berg, Petitioner
v.
Barack Obama, et al.

Docketed: October 31, 2008
Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Case Nos.: (08-4340)
Rule 11

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oct 30 2008 Petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment filed. (Response due December 1, 2008)
Oct 31 2008 Application (08A391) for an injunction pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Souter.
Nov 3 2008 Supplemental brief of applicant Philip J. Berg filed.
Nov 3 2008 Application (08A391) denied by Justice Souter.
Nov 18 2008 Waiver of right of respondents Federal Election Commission, et al. to respond filed.
Dec 1 2008 Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Bill Anderson.
Dec 8 2008 Application (08A505) for an injunction pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Souter.
Dec 9 2008 Application (08A505) denied by Justice Souter.
Dec 15 2008 Application (08A505) refiled and submitted to Justice Kennedy.
Dec 17 2008 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 9, 2009.
Dec 17 2008 Application (08A505) denied by Justice Kennedy.
Dec 18 2008 Application (08A505) refiled and submitted to Justice Scalia.
Dec 23 2008 Application (08A505) referred to the Court.
Dec 23 2008 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 16, 2009.
Jan 12 2009 Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Bill Anderson GRANTED.
Jan 12 2009 Petition DENIED.
Jan 21 2009 Application (08A505) denied by the Court.

And a third example from Bowen v Wells:
No. 08A524
Title: Gail Lightfoot, et al., Applicants
v.
Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State

Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
Case Nos.: (S168690)

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 12 2008 Application (08A524) for a stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Kennedy.
Dec 17 2008 Application (08A524) denied by Justice Kennedy.
Dec 29 2008 Application (08A524) refiled and submitted to The Chief Justice.
Jan 7 2009 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 23, 2009.
Jan 7 2009 Application (08A524) referred to the Court.
Jan 13 2009 Suggestion for recusal received from applicant.
Jan 22 2009 Supplemental brief of applicant Gail Lightfoot, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 26 2009 Application (08A524) denied by the Court.